Note: This article is written by Bruno Walther and all the viewpoints expressed below are his personal thoughts. They do not represent Captain Dash.

Could Ayn Rand be the mother of data revolution?

Many think that the emergence of data is a technical phenomenon.

I do not think so!

Data is not politically neutral. It is the result of a vision arising from the metaphysical, the epistemological and an ethical world.

The Epistemological Vision: The Reason

Think of the prism of the data, its base is its reasoning on objective and reasoned facts. This suggests that there is an objective reality. This says that consciousness is the ability to perceive what exists and that knowledge is gained by releasing anti-concepts that are myths, beliefs or emotional values only. This denies the existence of knowledge "a priori" and does not believe there is "truths by virtue of meaning."

Metaphysical Vision : Metaphysical Reality

Think in terms of what is given to know that reality exists independently of its observation or its conscience. It is there for whoever discovers it. Things are what they are, they have a specific character, their own identity. Awareness is a relational concept. Its purpose is not to create new objects, but to discover them and to establish links and hierarchies between them. The mind is not just created by reality but is a way to experience said reality.

The Ethical Vision: The Laws of Logic

The ethics of data consist of making the objective reason its only guide to action. The source of all the other virtues. This is the base of our beliefs, our goals, our values, our actions on a specific and rigorous rational process based on the laws of logic, not doctrines, aestheticising visions or social conventions. It is thought that irrationality is human engagement in self-destruction.

In short, data has a philosophical substrate. And it is no coincidence that almost all the data entrepreneurs, from Peter Thiel to Tay Kurzweil, share a common vision of the world.

This vision has a name: Objectivism formulated in the sense of Ayn Rand. In this sense data is the natural child of Ayn Rand or to be more precise grammar. It inherently carries its values, rules.

We are only at the beginning of this wave. But Uber to Airbnb to Netflix, data centric startups sweep the conventions. They design a society based on reality and reason as a principle of analysis, self-interest, and self-esteem with ethics and capitalism playing the role of the transformation tools.

Data is politically oriented. It is the catalyst for a radical transformation of the world towards a more rational society, made freer when capitalism becomes the beneficial system where the innovations brought by human creativity benefit all without causing losses to others.

And this is a formidably good news.

Written By: Bruno WaltherBruno Walther is the CEO & Co-Founder at Captain Dash.
You can reach him on Twitter @brunowalther .